Rediscovering the beauty of African expression in contemporary Christian worship
Something is happening in the South African church that, if you are spiritually and culturally attentive, is difficult to ignore. Slowly but noticeably, our worship sound is changing.
For many of us who grew up in charismatic and Pentecostal churches, particularly from the late 1980s through the 1990s and 2000s, Western contemporary gospel and worship music became a significant part of our church experience. Songs originating largely from the United States, Australia, and other Western Christian traditions became part of our worship vocabulary, and Western worship leaders, albums, musical arrangements, and church models profoundly influenced what we sang and, to some extent, how we understood contemporary worship.
There was nothing fundamentally wrong with this. The global church has always shared its songs, theology, experiences and expressions of faith across cultures, and we were blessed by many of these songs, which became deeply meaningful to generations of South African Christians.
But there was another side to this development. As Western contemporary worship became increasingly dominant in some of our churches, many of our own African compositions, melodies and traditional gospel expressions were pushed into the periphery. Songs that our parents and grandparents taught us, and we knew by heart, could sometimes feel old-fashioned, while the latest contemporary sound from America was regarded as modern, sophisticated and relevant.
Now, something appears to be changing.
We are Finding our Sound Again
Across Africa, and particularly through the influence of contemporary Nigerian gospel, we have witnessed the emergence of a sound that refuses to choose between African identity and contemporary musical expression.
Songs such as Imela, Nara, Onise Iyanu and Onaga demonstrate this beautifully. They are contemporary productions, yet they retain African languages, melodies, rhythms and modes of expression. They have travelled across national and denominational boundaries precisely because they sound contemporary without losing their African identity.
Nigeria has undoubtedly become one of the major contemporary catalysts for this sound, but South Africa has its own rich musical heritage to reclaim.
We have inherited an extraordinary treasury of traditional gospel songs, indigenous-language compositions, choral traditions and congregational music. Many of us grew up singing these songs; they were the soundtrack of our parents’ faith and, in many cases, of our earliest encounters with God.
What is exciting now is that we are not necessarily returning to these songs exactly as they were. We are reimagining them. Traditional isiZulu, isiXhosa, and Sesotho gospel songs can be given contemporary instrumentation, modern chord progressions, sophisticated vocal arrangements and current production techniques, while still retaining their original African character. And suddenly, something beautiful happens: the old becomes new without losing its identity. Songs such as Uthando Lwam Kuwe, Bokang Modimo and Akudingwa Nasibani demonstrate this beautifully. These songs are rooted in our traditional sound. Yet, they are transformed and reinterpreted through a contemporary sound, allowing a new generation to encounter “old” songs in a fresh and compelling way.
This is Not a Rejection of the West
It is important to make this distinction. The resurgence of African gospel should not be understood as an attempt to reject Western Christianity or everything that has come from the West. That would be neither fair nor historically accurate.
The Western church has contributed significantly to global Christianity, including through music, theological scholarship, missionary work, technology and contemporary worship. The issue is not whether Western influence is good or bad; the question is whether one cultural expression of Christianity should become the default template for everyone else.
Perhaps what we are witnessing is not rejection but rebalancing. For a long time, we absorbed. Now we are increasingly re-creating, adapting and contributing from our own cultural location, and that is a healthy development.
We Don’t Have to Become Less African to be Contemporary
There is something powerful about a generation discovering that African music need not remain trapped in the past. Our languages can be contemporary. Our rhythms can be contemporary. Our traditional gospel can be contemporary. Our worship can be both African and modern.
This is where the fusion becomes particularly exciting. We can take the musical sophistication of contemporary gospel and combine it with the melodic structures, rhythms, languages and communal expressions that belong to us. It is not imitation; it is evolution.
And perhaps this is where the African church begins to find a distinctive voice in the global Christian community, not by isolating itself from the world, but by contributing its own sound to it.
What Would Our Worship Have Looked Like?
I sometimes wonder what African Christianity would have sounded like if our musical development had not been so heavily influenced by Western Christianity. What would our worship services have looked like? What musical forms would have developed? How would our prayer meetings have sounded? How would our African understanding of community, spirituality, celebration, suffering and hope have shaped the way we sing to God?
We cannot answer these questions with certainty. They are questions about what might have been. But perhaps we don’t need to. We can begin asking a different question: What can African Christianity sound like now?
At the centre of this conversation must remain Christ. Jesus is not Western. He is not American. He does not belong to any single culture. Christianity emerged in the Middle East and subsequently became a faith expressed across languages, nations and cultures.
A great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. – Revelation 7:9
The picture is not of one culture becoming the template for everyone else. It is a picture of many people worshipping the same Christ, which means African Christians should not feel the need to abandon their cultural identity in order to produce legitimate Christian worship.
We can worship Christ in our languages. We can sing our melodies. We can dance our rhythms. We can tell our stories. We can bring the richness of our heritage into contemporary Christian worship.
And perhaps that is what this current moment represents: not a rejection of what came before, not an anti-Western movement, but a rediscovery. A generation remembering that we have a sound of our own.
So let the African church continue to find its voice. Let us reclaim the songs of our fathers and mothers. Let us reinterpret them for a new generation. Let us write new songs that sound unmistakably African while speaking to a contemporary world. We do not have to become less African to become more Christian.
Perhaps it is time to stop merely consuming the sound of the global church and start contributing our own.
